“The Bears commend the General Assembly for recognizing the steps that must be taken to further protect Illinois children and young student-athletes from preventable concussions and other brain injuries,” Bears president and CEO Ted Phillips said in a statement.

The law forces school boards to work within the Illinois High School Association’s concussion guidelines, which mandate that players removed from games because of head injuries not be permitted to return to play or practice without written permission from a health-care provider.

The NFL has implemented its own rules about taking players out when they suffer concussions and keeping them out until they’re cleared, although there’s still some resistance to those rules from the players themselves. The NFL is hoping that as high school football players learn to treat concussions as an injury they can’t just shake off, the attitude will eventually shift at the professional level as well.

A sad statement on the condition of parents/coaches/administrators when the state legislature, a bunch of politicians, for Gods sake, have to get involved in safety rules for kids playing football. And the saddest part is that they were right to do so, and needed to.

(off to gargle after mouthing words complimenting politicians)

hobartbaker says:May 31, 2011 3:51 PM

Does the old Bear crap in a cholostomy bag?

paperlions says:May 31, 2011 3:59 PM

This is the same NFL that spent over a decade employing people for the express purpose of denying the link between repeated concussions and brain disease? Now they suddenly care? Must be trying to avoid lawsuits.

willycents says:May 31, 2011 4:18 PM

@ paperlions

as new data and research becomes available, intelligent people change their stance and transition to new positions on a matter. Remember, it was once touted that the earth was flat and that the universe revolved around the earth. Knowlege changes minds and methods

tommytd says:May 31, 2011 7:53 PM

The Bears organization doesn’t have enough brain power to qualify for a concussion. LOL

paperlions says:May 31, 2011 8:43 PM

Yes, Willy, that is true. The problem with the application of that principle to the NFL is that the NFL’s “experts” were alone for years denying mountains of evidence and every single brain expert in the world. It would be one thing if the science was equivocal or there was not support by all of the evidence for the same conclusion…but that was not the case. All of the evidence pointed to the same conclusion and the NFL continued to be the lone dissenters for years.

Every year the NFL drug its feet, they put more players at risk. If you are going to err on one side of the discussion, which side would it make more sense to err on? Being safer than you need to be or being less safe than you need to be?

The NFL knowingly played loose with the long-term health of players for financial gain. Kudos.